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A man who was awaiting sentencing after he admitted making three girls steal from a Dundee supermarket has been found dead.

The body of 49-year-old Christopher Diamond was discovered at a footbridge over a railway line in Perth.

Diamond had admitted at Dundee Sheriff Court in June that he made the girls take groceries and stationery from the Asda store in Milton of Craigie. He was awaiting sentencing for the crime, in which he also made off with cosmetics and beauty products.

The crime led to him being widely dubbed “Fagin” after the character in Oliver Twist who ran a gang of child thieves.

Officers from Tayside Division and British Transport Police launched an inquiry into the death, which happened near Rae Place, off Dunkeld Road, on Monday morning.

Police have spoken to a number of people who were in the area at the time in a bid to establish the circumstances in which he died. However, the tragedy is not being treated a suspicious.

A British Transport Police spokesman said the man’s family had been informed.

He said: “We were called to the line north of Perth’s railway station at 7.15am.

“Paramedics from the Scottish Ambulance Service attended and he was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident is being treated as non-suspicious and a report has been sent to the procurator fiscal.”

Roads near Perth’s city centre were closed and trains disrupted while the emergency services dealt with the incident.

Known as the White Bridge, the walkway runs from Rae Place off Dunkeld Road, close to Perth College’s Crieff Road campus.

It is a well-used shortcut and links the housing estates of Fairfield and Muirton, just over a mile from Perth’s railway station.

Diamond, who lived at Carse Grange Farm Cottage in Perth, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by shoplifting, aggravated by involving children in the offence.

At the time, Sheriff Elizabeth Munro deferred sentence for a social work background report.